Britain’s Economic Problem Revisited

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xlvi

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2. Where Britain Went Wrong

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 1-34

3. The Lost Opportunities

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 35-62

4. Alternative Solutions

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 63-91

5. The Fundamental Problem

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 92-116

6. First Steps Towards a Solution

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 117-138

7. The Problem in Canada and the USA

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 139-164

8. The Underlying Economic Theory: The Implications for Inflation, Employment and Growth of a Fall in the Share of Output that is Marketed

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 165-206

9. The Statistical Background and the Derivation of the Charts

   • Robert Bacon, Walter Eltis

   Pages 207-251

10. Back Matter

    Pages 252-256

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This 1996 edition of Britain's Economic Problem opens with a substantial new chapter, 'Bacon and Eltis after 20 Years', in which the authors assess the impact of the policies of successive Conservative governments to bring British public expenditure under control. They also develop their theory and apply it to Sweden which has experienced the greatest increase in public expenditure of any European economy. This edition includes a complete reprint of the 1978 second edition of Britain's Economic Problem: Too Few Producers which Harry G. Johnson described as 'interesting, both for its explanation of 'the British disease' and for the economic-theoretical foundations on which its analysis is based'. The original book provided a new explanation of the decline of the British economy which showed how a growing shift of Britain's resources from the production of goods and services which can be marketed at home and overseas to the provision of unmarketed public services simultaneously:- reduced the rate of growth and weakened the balance of payments - reduced investment and the economy's ability to provide productive jobs - fuelled the accelerating inflation and obstructive trade union behaviour from which Britain suffered.

• growth
• Inflation
• production

Policies and ethics